South Korean President Rules Out Possible Redeployment Of Tactical Nuclear Weapons

Umer Jamshaid Published May 23, 2022 | 08:20 PM

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on Monday denied the possibility of redeploying nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula, despite rising missile and nuclear threat from North Korea

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd May, 2022) South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on Monday denied the possibility of redeploying nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula, despite rising missile and nuclear threat from North Korea.

Speaking with CNN, Yoon said that in the event of Pyongyang's attack on South Korea, Seoul would fully rely on the assistance of the United States, including missile defense and its "nuclear umbrella." At the same time, Yoon ruled out any possibility of "redeploying tactical nuclear weapons on the (Korean) Peninsula."

Yoon also stressed that the intensification of military drills, agreed with US President Joe Biden during his visit to South Korea on Saturday, will serve purely the defensive objectives and is not targeted against North Korea.

"I do not want North Korea to collapse; I want North Korea to prosper alongside South Korea. I do not believe that enhancing (North Korea's) nuclear capability is helpful and conducive to maintaining international peace and shared prosperity," Yoon added.

The US nuclear arsenal was withdrawn from South Korea after Seoul and Pyongyang signed a joint anti-nuclear declaration in 1992, under which the sides agreed not to test, manufacture, possess, deploy, or use nuclear weapons, apply nuclear energy solely for peaceful purposes as well as not to possess facilities for nuclear reprocessing and uranium enrichment.

Despite signing the declaration, North Korea remained skeptical of US nuclear weapons being completely withdrawn from the Korean Peninsula, and embarked on the path of nuclear development. In the light of continuing confrontation with Washington and Seoul, all the attempts to force Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program failed, and North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006.